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Monday, April 1, 2013

I've been talking a lot about the progress of the final book around here lately, so today I thought I'd spend some time to highlight a few additional archetypes that were added since the last time we talked about archetypes.

Pet Pusher

One of the biggest complaints I received about Psi-punk is that it didn't have any "pet classes." This was certainly an oversight on my part -- I know pet classes are a staple of many an RPG, so I thought I'd make it up to everyone by including the Pet Pusher. There still aren't any actual classes in the game, but this archetype should give people a nudge in the right direction when it comes time to think about how they want to design their character.

Pet Pusher: By using the mind control and empathy psionic powers or magic devices, pet pushers are able to get a feel for what their animal friends are experiencing and then "push" their thoughts and actions to make them do their bidding. Characters who choose to become pet pushers need to beware of PETA -- Psionic Empaths Training Animals -- because the organization doesn't like rogue animal handlers wandering about.

Half-Giant

Half-giants were a common psionic race in the Dungeons and Dragons Psionics Handbook. Psi-punk doesn't use races other than humans, but with a few tweaks to your own power usage you can still play one if you wish.

Half-Giant: Sometimes bigger is just better. Other times, it's hard to find clothes that fit. Either way, half-giants use the control animate power to increase their size to around 9 feet and spend most of their time in that form. Having a half-giant on the team is useful when you need to intimidate someone or smash down a door, but it makes it difficult to observe the clearance at a drive-through window.

Mecha Pilot

After reading through the Mecha Role-Playing Game by Heroic Journey Publishing, I thought to myself: "Hey, why doesn't Psi-punk have giant robots that people can stomp around in? It's future-y enough." For now there aren't any game mechanics for riding in a mech (though you can treat it just like piloting a vehicle) but stay tuned for Psi-punk: Deus Ex Mecha, our upcoming cyberpunk/giant robot mashup.

Mecha Pilot: Giant robots used to be the domain of anime and science fiction, but in 2037 the Japanese brought us the first mecha that fit all of the expectations we'd given them over the years. Now we have Mecha Pilots, skilled drivers with the cyberpsi Gift (or a suitable magic replacement) that can talk to their 'bots on a binary level. These deadly mecha warriors are not to be trifled with.

Console Cowboy

"Hacker" was such an old-fashioned and boring name for computer jocks, so we updated the name to pay homage to our roots.

Console Cowboy: These computer hackers are great at getting into any system they can get a ping on. They look a bit out-dated in their snakeskin boots and wide-brimmed hats, but that's just part of their culture that you don't understand because you're not part of it.

Hopefully you enjoyed these updates to our Character Archetypes section. Do you have any other great cyberpunk character archetypes that I should consider adding in an expansion? Let me know in the comments!